


insanity:

by orphan_account



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, but he probably wishes he was, jason's not dead, toxic!!!, tw: alcohol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28029870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "We would’ve been fine, champagne problems and all, but don’t get it twisted. You left me.”Reyna snickered. “What and all?”
Relationships: Jason Grace/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	insanity:

“I don’t know if you know this,” Jason says, opening the door. “But you missed the California border by a couple hundred miles.”

He looks worn, the same way old statues do – all rust and emotions that once were. His eyes are glassy and his glasses cover his eyes, but they’re still Reyna’s favorite color, and blue still reminds her of falling in love.

“I took a night plane here,” she explains. It’s frigid outside; she realizes that her t-shirt doesn’t block out the cold of Washington. It feels better that way though. Something sharp through all the chaos. “A lot of people are at the airport at night, I didn’t realize.”

Jason still doesn’t invite her in. “What the hell are you doing here, Reyna?” The familiar scar on his lip gleams in the moonlight, looking more like a matchstick with every glance, as if it knows how desperately she wants to set the place on fire.

“I don’t really know,” she rambles. It all comes rushing back to her now, the way Jason Grace can make her breath shallow and her heart beat too quick. “I think I’m having a mental breakdown.”

“Okay,” he says, dragging out the ‘Y’. There is a split second where Reyna can see him consider whether or not to leave her in the cold, much in the same way that she left him. Standing there; flushed cheeks; breathless. But Jason Grace is a better person than she will ever be. With a sigh, he opens the door wider. “Try not to break anything in the same way you did me.”

Wow.

His apartment is quaint, just as he is. She sees a small desk in the corner of the living room that’s stacked with texts and pieces of paper that are organized in neat piles. Reyna doesn’t expect anything less from Jason and his type-A personality. On the other side of the living room is a potted plant; there is no television.

It takes Reyna once glance at the dining room table to understand that the fig tree is just as fake as his put-together facade. “You’ve been drinking,” she says, tapping on the glass bottles. She knows she is being far too loud for however late it is; she knows that she is thunder preluding a storm.

“I’m twenty-four actually,” he pours himself another glass of whiskey, as if Reyna’s voice has just given him a newfound claim for alcoholism. “So I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

“Since when do you drink whiskey?” she sits on the table, examining the bottle under the little light that the bulb provides. “Cheap whiskey at that.”

“Well, Dakota won’t sell me anything anymore,” Jason’s lip twitches, and even if that isn’t signal enough to show he’s joking, the idea of Dakota enabling Jason’s dream of escapism is preposterous at best. “And I’ll have you know that this apartment is more expensive than it looks. Though, if I knew I was going to be having guests, maybe I would’ve bought those stupid cocktails you like.”

There is venom in his voice. Everything about him looks hazy – the sharp boy who led armies into battle and wouldn’t take 'no' for an answer has been replaced with whatever this is. A ghost that thinks death is too much of an effort.

“I’ve stopped drinking,” she tells him. Then she gestures around at everything. From here, she can see a bottle of aspirin on the desk and the fast food cartons in the kitchen; there are no cups around the sink, so Reyna’s willing to bet Jason hasn’t had actual water in a few days. “Are you trying to kill yourself?”

“I’m a Ph. D student,” he replies as if there’s nothing wrong. “We’re all trying to kill ourselves.”

He deflates, pulling up a chair and finally realizing that there are no flights back to California for a few more hours, and he can’t exactly kick her out the door, as much as he might want to. “So, you were having a breakdown?”

“Why did you never come back?” Reyna blurts out. “After your quest, after Piper, after the trip to Brazil with Leo and all the girls you fucked in South America, you never came back.” It comes out sounding a lot more like an accusation in the end; Reyna can smell the smoke.

“Why did _I_ leave?” something in him has always been so reminiscent of the wolves that Camp Jupiter held up alongside the gods. Then again, Jason has always reminded her of a god. 

He leaps off the chair and starts pacing. He never paces, unless it’s Reyna. “The _day_ before Juno took me, the day before! You left me standing in New Rome with a bottle of champagne in your hand and my heart on the floor. And you have the audacity to play the victim?”

Reyna grimaces, twisting the mom her ring gave her on her ring finger. She doesn’t quite know what to say about a trait she knows she carries but has never heard put to words. “I wasn’t ready, Jay.”

“Don’t call me that!” he snarls, and Reyna may be the one who hopped on the flight, but Jason’s the one who she came to see. He is furious with her, but for the first time in nearly five years, he is with her. “You don’t get to call me that. We would’ve been fine, champagne problems and all, but don’t get it twisted. _You_ left me.”

Reyna snickered, an involuntary gesture that led Jason to turn to her, eyes blazing. _“What_ and all?”

“My mom…” Jason hesitates. Reyna has shattered his soul once before and he’s not keen to show her the one that’s held together with scotch tape. “She called them champagne problems. No matter what it was; alcohol, depression, whatever.”

“Those two are the same thing,” Reyna points out. “And I thought your mom died when you were two.”

“Five,” he corrects. “And she was a famous actress. She did interviews; I’ve been watching them on the library computer.”

“Jason, I’m pretty sure everyone in the library thinks you’re a creep.”

Jason stares at her for a moment, unreadable once again just as he was when he first opened the door. “I’m booking your return flight.”

“On what?” Reyna demands. “If you’re watching Vanity Fair at the library, then-”

He pulls out a cellphone from his jean pocket. “Phone. Leo made it.” He scrolls through the device with his index finger like an old person. “Do you want the 6:30 or 6:47?”

“Hmm,” Reyna jumps off the table and plucks it out of his hands. “Neither.”

She can feel his breath hot on her skin. With every exhale, she hears the words _I miss you, I love you, please stay_. His eyes are still Reyna’s favorite color, but they’re tinted orange. “Yeah?”

But the rain starts again; he pushes himself away. “That’s what you said last time.”

“Jason,” she starts, unsure of where she is going. For the last five years, she has just been following a trail of ash.

“Reyna,” he returns, shooting it back to like it’s a silver arrow and she is the devil. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

“The legion is worried about you. We can’t get ahold of Piper or Leo either.”

“The legion can kiss my-” he interrupts himself, but he’s still icy. When the legion demanded he stay in California, he went to Seattle. When they said he would never be anything, he became their saving Grace. “I leave for Amsterdam in a month.”

“Oh.”

“You’re never going to change, are you?” Jason runs a shaky hand through his hair. It’s longer now, and doesn’t fit him at all. Or maybe it does and Reyna just doesn’t like change. Either way, the way a piece of it rests on his forehead makes her want to go to the kitchen and search for a lighter. 

“I’m a lawyer now,” and she really is. Passed the bar exam and everything. “It’s my job to argue.”

“So I guess it’s my job to do the same thing over and over and expect different results,” Jason bites his lip. “Light me up, Reyna Ramirez-Arellano.”

**Author's Note:**

> this is really shitty, i'm sorry. but i heard champagne problems and had to write this. anyway, send me/comment a song or quote and a pairing, i'm taking requests for pjo universe.


End file.
